Without being as popular as the Buddhism, the Taoism keeps a strong influence in the Chinese traditions. Some people credit it to be the only "made in China" religion, the other ones were imported. The Tao concept is the epicenter of the religion and describes how each person must set up his life to keep in harmony with the order of the universe.
The Taoism has its sacred mountains as well and Huashan is one of them. 2 hours by bus from Xi'an, the Huashan small village is the starting point to explore the mountain. Shuttles continuously commute from the village to the access area of the north peak. A cable car prevents us from walking the strenuous ascension.
Easily recognizable with their caps, Chinese tourists outnumber the pilgrims. The group of red caps follows the one of yellow caps. The cable car drops us off by the north peak and we start the unending ups and downs from a peak to the next one, west peak, south peak, east peak and center peak. Without experiencing it as a pilgrimage, the different ascensions need some moral qualities to end the loop and not eluding a peak. An about 5-hour exhausting lap in the middle of white and smooth rock, breathtaking cliffs, lumps of forests nested in the stony chinks, floating temples above an ocean of clouds. Hours of emotions running alonside the summits of the sacred mountain.
The crowd massed at the entrance of the cable car drives us to put in a last effort going down on foot. Inside the gorges, the scenery is marvellous while le last steps are really painful for our legs.
Keyword - sacred mountains -
Sunday 5 August 2007
The 5 sacred peaks of the Huashan mountain
By dorian on Sunday 5 August 2007, 22:43 - RTW-China
Wednesday 1 August 2007
Buddhist stroll in the Wutaishan sacred mountain
By dorian on Wednesday 1 August 2007, 19:06 - RTW-China
We go southward from Datong by taxis we specially bargained for this journey. Our first stop is at the hanging monastery. What an idea to build a monastery inlaid in the cliff ? The field below was perhaps too flat and too horizontal ?
The result is striking. Anyone would think a stone chopper fell down a temple and only half the temple stuck on the blade. The temple tour lasts a short time and in order to avoid problems of tourists crossing at several 10 meters high, we must follow the good way. From the temple, we even more realize the difficulty of its building.
The next stop is the wooden pagoda Mu Ta. 97 meters high, an impressing height for this kind of building when you know that not a nail was hammered to erect it.
We finally arrive at Taihuai, laid-back village nested down the Wutaishan valley, terminus of our journey. The Wutaishan is one of the 5 chinese Buddhist sacred mountains. The pilgrims searching for an "inside peace" lose their way among the throng of tourists poured by hordes of brand new buses. Despite the crushes and the colony of Chinese tourists, we can discover a few tranquility-favourable secluded spots. The village gathers about 15 temples and monasteries offering a great diversity of architectures and atmospheres. Discovering it on foot plunge us into this Buddhist culture. We cross the Tayuan temple, the Xiantong temple, the Luohou temple and the Guangren temple. Looking at the pictures is more digestible.
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